What Can We Learn from 1860?

One of my friends read “Should We Talk About Secession,” an article just posted on the ‘net. He’s from the wild and wooly Montana-Idaho-Wyoming school of thought and commented, “I’ve been talking about it for two years.”

Woohoo…some of us have been talking about it since 1840.

I haven’t read the piece yet, not wanting to be influenced by another writer before I see what I have to say. Signature chuckle…well, how do I know what that is? I haven’t written it, yet.

That only sounds like an odd thing to say; it isn’t. That is how our minds work, you know: we dump information in the hopper, our brains process the data, and then we have to get the results out either through writing or speaking. “Thinking” is the act of imposing order on facts, of deducing connections, of correlating interlocking facets, of discerning order and patterns. Thinking is similar to using a washing machine: first you put in water, detergent, and dirty clothes. Close the lid and turn the machine on. Go away for a while. Sure enough, in general when you return the device has cleaned your clothing, but it isn’t anywhere near ready to wear. You have to get it out of the cavity and process items further by drying and then folding and putting away. Only then do you have fresh, clean jeans to wear.

What I think about secession basically is that it is a consummation devoutly to be wished, but a dangerous pursuit to advocate publicly. Janet Napolitano and the alphabet soup guys do not take kindly to the notion of freedom in any way, and for the precise reason that Abraham Lincoln did not. When asked why he didn’t just let the South go, Lincoln exploded in a rage, “Let the South go? LET THE SOUTH GO? How, then, should I fill my coffers?”

Documented historical fact. Look it up for yourselves. Winners write history and the North/Leftists have had nearly 160 years to spin their propaganda, but the fact is that the South was the wealthy portion of the country back then. Cotton was, indeed, king, the Feds had gotten themselves into monetary trouble, and bankruptcy was imminent! The back room Congressional brawls were over whether to declare the USA closed at the Mississippi and raise taxes, or to hit tariffs even harder to benefit their factories and shipping businesses, improving their bottom lines and increasing tax revenues. Greed and tariffs won. Hit the South for the enrichment of the North. Hit those who produced cane, corn, and cotton for the benefit of those who consumed and controlled shipping and rail transport and to increase federal control.

We are still disagreeing over the same issues, although the team names have changed. The War for Southern Independence (aka “The War of Northern Aggression” on our side and “The War of the Rebellion” on the other) was about financial matters and the proper role of government. The Southern states had been sold a bill of goods that they were going to get something similar to the original Articles of Confederation before the Constitution and still expected that. Th’ Yankees, for simple terminology, have mocked “States’ Rights” deliberately and consistently as a giant joke since who flung th’ chunk, but it isn’t and they know it quite well. It is a grave issue of utmost importance to those of us who wish to be responsible for our own behavior and neither beholden to any government anywhere nor raped for the benefit of those who outvote us.

The war was and is about freedom and money, what else? Slavery was a distraction, an attempt to pretty up the naked aggression of the North, long after the war was started by firing on Ft. Sumter, and Lincoln never freed a single slave. His famous proclamation applied only to slaves in territory he did not control; it certainly did not free slaves in the North. Yes, the Northerners had slaves, too, and Yankee ship captains were the ones who plied the slave trade. Not one Southern ship was ever a blackbirder.

Lincoln was looking for spin and a highly-emotional issue to cloak his behavior. He was a despicable man, the original Illinois super politician.

The South was in a manpower bind, with every free man already working, and was phasing out slavery as rapidly as possible, should this issue still disturb you. Slave labor is the most expensive, least effective solution to a problem, but until machinery was invented to pick cotton and process cane, the South had no other choice save not remaining in business. Slaves have to be fed, housed, clothed, purchased, and provided with medical care, and then someone has to stand around constantly to get any sort of work at all out of them. Slavery is wildly uneconomical, and sharecropping isn’t much better in terms of Return On Investment. Southerners came from different portions of the British Empire; the North was settled by small shopkeepers and religious zealots, while the richer land and more hospitable climate of the South drew those who live on and in harmony with the land, particularly those from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

If you’re still dubious, here are some facts: 70% of all Southerners never owned a single slave. Slaves were very expensive; a prime field hand cost $2,000, making him at least a Maseratti. A trained ladies’ maid or butler was even more. Sure, you could abuse a slave because you owned him, but how many people would? Do you key your car and take a baseball bat to the windshield just because you can (so long as you do not file an insurance claim?) Normal people don’t. Free blacks who owned slaves were more likely to do so, historically. Yankee overseers weren’t always nice, either, abusing the workers occasionally in an attempt to exceed production quotos. Even so, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was sheer, sentimental, sensationalist hogwash.

27% of those in the South never owned more than two slaves. Slaves were a luxury in a land where it was all but impossible to hire a maid or a farm hand.

Only 3% ever owned three or more slaves, and no, neither Gone with the Wind nor Mandingo were at all true to life. Yes, there were a very few stereotypical antebellum mansions, just as there are a very few of those who own ski lodges in Vail and summer places on Martha’s Vineyard, and buy ambassadorships and $540 Lanvin tennis shoes.

The BIG question is…why did the Southerners resist so fiercely? Would you go fight and die for Nancy Pelosi’s power when there is nothing in it for you? Would you fight to maintain Al Gore’s lifestyle? Would you go into battle to ensure that Michelle Obama can have ten thousand dollar purses? What stupid questions. Of course not.

The South fought for what it believed, which was that we were free and independent states entitled, in writing, to withdraw from the “union” whenever we wished, and to govern ourselves as we see fit. That we saw no reason to be impoverished for the benefit of shipbuilders, bankers, and politicians. That all we wanted was to be left in peace instead of being robbed and attacked. That Yankees are crazy and our totally different lifestyle is vastly superior…and we haven’t changed our minds.

Once again, the issue was and is redistribution of wealth and unbridled governmental control. I wrote recently about the enormous tariff Obama slapped on tire imports. 5,000 tire workers lost their jobs when several manufacturers of low-end tires could not compete with China, which holds about 15% of the market. Well, Statists can’t have that! 5,000 voters and union favor are clearly more important than affordable tires for most of us. The tariff was raised from 4.7% to nearly 40%, and the cheapest tire (not counting one of those ridiculous donuts) in WalMart went immediately from $49 to $125. Did this reopen the tire plants or create 5,000 jobs to replace those that could not compete in a faintly free market? No, of course not. It did not, and will not, create a single job. It did become another enormous tax on the American driving public. “Oddly” enough, only enormous tires for 18-wheelers are exempt, leading one to suppose that Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., still has a bit of influence.

A tariff IS a tax, a way of transferring wealth. It targets the many for the wealth of a few. It is monopolistic in nature. By hobbling Chinese imports, American manufacturers are not obliged to practice competitive business policies. Their market is protected at the expense of the customer. Mind, I haven’t really any problem with monopolies, which are self-correcting in a free market. Goodyear (or whoever) couldn’t compete at the low end, and China snagged 15% of the market. If US manufacturers want the low-end market back, they need to produce better tires at the same prices or cheaper similar tires than China can.

My preliminary thoughts on secession, then, are that we should understand what we want and how we can get it. Do many really care whether or not Hawaii, for example, becomes a free nation again? Sure, some few Romantics do, but for all practical purposes Hawaii has belonged to Japanese Democrats most of my life. The Hawaiians of the blood royal have a very good point: the US wrested the throne from Queen Liliuokalani. Beats me why they want it back, but it sounds fair to me.

What we had better care about is whether or not the massive Federal government continues to grow unchecked and ever more rapacious and dictatorial. It makes me very nervous when new laws make it impossible for us to leave the country without proper documentation! Shades of the Berlin Wall. Canada and Mexico make no such demands; Washington D.C. does. Do you deal well with something called a “trusted traveler” document? I don’t. How about “no fly” lists that forbid you to get on an aircraft going anyplace? Not healthy, people. Not all Gulags are in northern Russia. A gulag is a state of mind and overwhelming force, not a matter of location.

RFID-chipping animals, machinery, clothing, and humans is to increase government surveillance, identification, and control. One problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, as it was in Viet Nam, is that the “insurgents” blend into the rest of the population. Be very wary of the national “driver’s license” which functions as an identifying document and must be carried on your person. Eye askance the “traffic cameras” which are springing up, for they are meant to track vehicles, read those drivers’ licenses, and allow your every move to be monitored.

Big Brother watches us more every day, controls more of our lives, and is backing us into corners where we can neither flee nor supply our own needs through our own efforts. The Food “Safety” Bill will make it illegal to use any save genetically-modified seeds from Monsanto (dangerous and do not propagate from what you grow), allow the government to know where every head of cattle and chicken is, and make it possible to locate every bite of food so that it can be confiscated at federal whim. It turns possessing raw milk out of your goat and the chicken you killed for dinner into crimes.

Taxing us at rates over fifty percent is unacceptable, but controlling the food supply is intolerable. Gun confiscation became far closer by a proposed “simple” tax of $50/year on each gun, something that need not even be voted on by Congress, since it is presented as “an IRS issue.” In order to take our guns, first they have to know where they are. As the founding father said, “Fear the government that fears your guns.”

Fear the government that has changed from the most basic of “thou shalt nots” to incessant meddling with every aspect of our lives, and holds that we are cows to be stripped for personal gain and to buy votes. King John is back on the throne, and in this version he does not have a brother named Richard, off fighting in the Holy Land. Robin Hood is a crony of the Sheriff of Nottingham. A successful secessionist movement that established a smaller truly independent nation with time to undo the harm of the past would be a start…but would Washington let the people go? I don’t think so.

Sorry Linda, I am from a long line of Southeners but I would never attempt to justify slavery under any pretenses. Whether it was his intention or not, Lincoln’s actions helped destroy this evil. I find your logic and assumptioms a bit creepy and not at all in line with the opinions typically expressed on Whiskey and Gunpowder that keep me coming back.

Skot

Well said Linda. It’s amazing how brainwashed people are on the causes of the Civil War.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Thanks, Skot. Ronald and Donald Kennedy’s “The South Was Right” is stuffed with horrifying quotes from Lincoln, his commanders, and newspapers of the day. Chuckle…I nearly didn’t read it several years ago because the proposition was obvious to me! The second Revolutionary War was a continuation of the conflict which goes back to Saxons vs. Normans via Cavaliers vs. Roundheads, through Jefferson vs. Hamilton, to the controllers wiping the floor with us today. The dispute has always been repression against self-determination, large government vs. small, and whether taxes and tariffs should be high or low–and why. Lincoln, Sherman, and Ben “Beast” Butler were determined to beat the South so firmly into submission–while lining their pockets–that Yankee/Liberal/Statist rule could never be challenged again. Scorched earth and near-genocide were very effective; 150 years later the South has yet to recover from destruction of capital, the loss of leaders and producers, or having virtually no say in how the USA has been run since. “Reparations” sounds like an early Marshall plan, replacing burned houses, stolen seed, and slain horses and mules (cars, trucks, and tractors being the modern equivalent.) It should have been called Reprisals. Winners write history, and to this day our heritage and culture are mocked. Continued below

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Southerners remain the only portion of the US population who KNOW what it is to be invaded, defeated, and subjected to brutal tyranny. WE are the ones who know taxes can be raised so high that there IS no way to pay them, the dangers of defying occupying troops on our soil, and the results of government pillage that leave the conquered hungry. I include Texas in this description because our traditional values are very similar and we remain an occupied Republic. We are not, have never been, and cannot be, under the Constitution, a “state.” And y’all just thought I was being colorful. No, indeed. Our flag flies at the same height as the war flag of the US (didn’t know there’s a peace flag, did you?! The stripes are vertical.) not because we “were” a sovereign nation but because we ARE a nation. Subjugated and occupied, because the US is in defiance of treaty and a Federal Court command to “cease and desist hostilities against the land and people of the Republic of Texas.” Texas fought on for six months after Bobby Lee surrendered on promises that the North would leave us to recover from our wounds. He said afterwards that he would have fought to the last man had he known what (modern terminology here) would come of trusting a politician from Illinois. Who can tell me when the court decision I spoke of was written?.

Pickdog

Great writing there Linda!

God Bless Texas!

Pickdog
III

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

The answer is “2004.” Old memories are long and we Southerners learned our lessons about the results of losing wars conducted on our own soil. Big governments hold all the troops, communications, organization, weapons vastly superior to anything citizens have, the treasuries, and vast piles of supplies and materiel. They have the power to tax , the power to punish, the power to turn off utilities, and the power to kill. Ours has allies such as the UN and a reciprocal agreement with Canada to provide troops in case of “civil unrest” and a vast propaganda machine ready to cry “Insurrection” and “sedition.” “Sedition” is whatever a powerful central government says it is. “Hate speech,” only purports to be about “alternate lifestyles” or ethnicity. Subject people must not be allowed to speak their minds on government policy. Tribal disagreements result in guerilla warfare and priest holes. In general Johnny Reb could be distinguished from a bluebelly by his accent, although there were certainly exceptions. Viet Nam and the current “overseas contingency operations” are nightmares because the enemy blends into the native population. The push to RFID humans, animals, internal travel documents and machinery, combined with spy cameras (“traffic control devices”), can produce an identification system Hitler and Stalin would have envied. Naomi Wolfe’s “The End of America” documents how all of the enabling legislature Hitler used has been incorporated in legislation in America in this century. This does not necessarily mean we will see an openly fascistic government in our lifetimes, but it raises the hair on the necks of those who remember 1860-1865. Perhaps that is why Nurnberg did not repair the holes in the facade of the Opera House, so that the people would remember. Of course I do not think we need another internal war! I think we need to rein in all governments at all levels and halt proliferating mandates and restrictions. Turn ALL the scoundrels out via the ballot box and get ourselves a new set of scoundrels with lower expectations and fewer demands? Cain’t hurt tuh decide now wheah tuh hide th’ smoked hams when a cavalry patrol rides through. Armies only had to steal all the livestock, trample the crops, kill women and children, and set fire to our houses once to leave scars that will never disappear. Keep your Confederate dollars because they have historical value, but watch over your precious remaining freedoms. Any system that will march to the sea once could decide to do it again.

froggy

Hi Linda,
An excellent view of the real issues of the time, goodness I always thought the rubbish “Official american history” I was taught in school didn’t add up. I’m a South African stuggling to understand the crime infested disaster my country has become. I can practically replace the names in your article and it would would apply to our SA history from the view of the normal sa white citizen. Here also there’s talk about secession but I suspect it’s just a dream for the reasons mentioned in your article.

Froggy…how interesting. I would love to hear more about your life and how you cope. Your situation is surely even more dangerous than ours simply because there is a history of reactions against whites–I suspect primarily because you are the landowners and business men. There are always those who eye what the producers have enviously and whip up resentment on frivolous grounds; the “freedom fighters” confiscate and murder, but do not profit more than briefly. Such ploys never succeed for many reasons, one of which is covered in an article you can find over at http://www.thetexasring.com. It is about the frustrations of trying to teach city people how to be useful around the ranch. They can’t get it through their heads that we old geezers know a thing or two and when we tell them HOW to perform a task we have good reasons for it. I’m sure tea plantations cannot be run by the ignorant any better than aircraft construction can. Thanks much for writing again. Imagine my voice being heard in South Africa…Linda

bytejockey

If at first you don’t secede, try, try, again.

Big Ugly

Thanks, Linda,
Well said, all!
Anyone who does not understand slavery, needs to read the Bible.
Anyone who does not understand slavery, needs to find out about the white slavery, indentured servitude, that was much more common in the North than ‘slavery’ ever was in the South. A slave that cost $2000 was well cared for – an indentured servant (slave) was abused and ‘used up’ in the 5 or 10 years that you ‘owned’ them. A large number of indentured never survived their term – especially children.
The War Between the States was NEVER about slavery, it was about the rights of the Sovereign States – and coming again soon.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Hey, Pick Dawg III, y’all one of us? Don’t git no better so long’s we live and “work” in the country, do it? Lordy, I love my life! Today was one of about three times a month someone manages to drag me to town, yuck, but day in and day out it doesn’t get in better than being out in God’s country with livestock and wildlife. Happy sigh. Thanks for writing. Linda.

Big Ugly, me ‘at’s off. Wow, did you pack a punch in a very short space. I’ve written articles on the old South for Gary at least half a dozen times, but I never submitted them because there is so MUCH misinformation that needs rebutting. Slavery is the least efficient and most expensive form of labor. Given any other choice the South would never have used slaves. What do you do when every available man and a lot of women and kids are already working? One cannot hire labor that does not exist. Most folks don’t know that the YANKEE ship owner were the ones who came across slaves in Africa and figured that Southerners, desperate for labor, would buy them. NO southern vessal EVER engaged in the blackbird trade. (MDC is arguing about Jean LaFitte, but I point out that he was French and a pirate. Smile…we have such fun.) Outsiders are not aware that the North had a great many slaves, too, not just indentured servants. Southerners were shedding slavery as quickly as possible after the Industrial Revolution. Slaves must be purchased, fed, housed, medicated, clothed, and watched constantly to get even a little work out of them. They aren’t worth what they cost from the start and the upkeep is monumental. Our sixty-year John Deere Model N still runs fine! It sold new for about the same price as a prime field hand. Little John doesn’t whine, he doesn’t run away, he doesn’t get sick, and he only eats when he is working! Y’all write again, now, you heah?! Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Hardrock miner: I just saw your comment. I assure you that I am not in favor of slavery, as my previous comment discussed briefly. Slavery is very inefficient and it is enough trouble keeping free men working consistently during the hours they are paid for, to say nothing of those who live on the Welfare Plantation and produce nothing to justify their existences. Before you call me hard-hearted, “mean-spirited,” Elitist scum, I suggest you go find out about matriarchies (we can scarcely call them “families”) who have been on the public dole for EIGHT generations. As I commented somewhere, most of us consider 25 years a generation. This does not hold true when those who toil not, neither do they spin nor learn enough to get j-o-b-s (as a general but not invariable rule) start producing the next cash crop at twelve and thirteen. Welfare RUINS lives. The “social” portion of the taxes my husband paid supported a second “family” of four. We were not consulted; the money was taken. We could not stop their failure and we had no joy in the unlikely event the kids had any success we never knew of. Great Grief, HRM, have you no sense? A slave was not only an economic necessity but he was a prized–if infuriating–possession. Far more were treated as family than you appear to recognize. Only 3% of those in the Antebellum South ever owned 3 or more slaves, and 78% never owned ANY. Why blame a whole civilization for the behavior of a few that you disapprove of? Similarly, if you don’t like what I write on W&G or in comments, just don’t read it. No sense in blaming everyone for what I choose to say. I do nt apologize for my ancestors–who have fought in every war in America since before the US began–I do not apologize for what I write, and I refuse to accept unearned guilt. I asked MDC what he thought of your comment, and he says merely that it is immediately apparent that you do not understand history. I expected some sort of vivid sailor lingo! A new world is dawning, and many of us will neither apologize nor back down when you wave your magic talismans of “diversity” and “hate speech” and made up words ending in “phobe” ever again. You have used our manners against us for too long while you insulted us at will. When you wish to discuss facts I am at your disposal. LBT

jay moses

i suggest that all you folks who think that the South was phasing out slavery review the extensive literature on prices paid for slaves before the Civil War. thrroughout the South, the price of slaves continued to rise right up to the moment of secession. quite obviously, the people buying the slaves didn’t think slavery was on the way out.
By the way, the States of the former confederacy are now the fattest, poorest, sickest most polluted and most dependent on government handouts of any states in the Union. Feel free to secede again, I suspect that most of us in the North will be glad to see you go.
jay moses

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Mr Moses: Let us suppose that your agrarian homeland has been invaded and that most of the men–including the very old and young teens–and a few women (who had to disguise themselves as men) have joined the army to fight off the aggressors. Most of you live by growing crops and raising livestock, and you have long had severe difficulties procuring enough labor to feed everyone and to raise cotton and cane, the tradegoods you produce so that you can buy shoes and other manufactured goods from elsewhere. In a climate of rising inflation–produced in large part by the ones who started the war increasing tariffs and taxes upon you–and a helpless feeling that war was sure to result, would a sensible person attempt to find someone to replace him while he was gone? I remind you again that only the wealthiest 3% ever owned three or more slaves, and 70% of Southerners never owned ANY. YANKEES were the ones who plied the slave trade and had a lot of them, themselves. Those who bought slaves shortly before the outbreak of war were attempting to protect their families and means of livelihood the only way available to them. Somebody had to work the fields and take care of the animals while the men were involved in a fight they never wanted. All we wanted was a simple “no fault” divorce, to go our way in peace according to the agreement we had made 80 years before. to be continued

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

I have long said that I would give up my “right” to vote if only qualified voters under strict Constitutional interpretation had the franchise. If you can persuade Nancy, Harry, and Obama to let our people go I would appreciate it, and take your polluting industry with you, along with your unions, vast numbers of bureaucrats and those who do not like our views on what constitutes good lives, please. IF your comment, “By the way, the States of the former confederacy are now the fattest, poorest, sickest most polluted and most dependent on government handouts of any states in the Union.” can be validated, you just proved my point that the Reprisals taken by Lincoln, his Congress, his generals, and his far more numerous and better-equipped troops, and the actions of all Northern politicians ever since, did an excellent job of beating us into poverty and keeping us there. You go point with pride to Detroit, Chicago, DC, and Los Angeles as examples of slim, affluent, taxpayers living in pristine conditions produced by the superior ideals and policies of Illinois, California, and Massachusetts politicians and union labor, but I’m going to hold on to my cracker ways as long as I can, asking nothing of government other than it defend borders and leave us alone. I’ll compromise: Go your smug way in peace, and we’ll defend our own borders, thank you. How about a little tolerence of diversity so far as WE are concerned? Linda Brady Traynham

Walt Bombka

Ms. Linda,

I have come to enjoy your writing immensely. When I left the Navy first time, my wife and I traveled from San Diego to New Orleans via car. After crossing the great State of Texas we enjoyed the National Park’s walking tours of New Orleans. As a U.S. history major, I was surprised to learn that during the War, New Orleans had capitulated with out a shot. You don’t usually find this in the textbooks. Our guide explained that at the time of secession 2/3 of the Confederate gold reserve was stored in the New Orleans banks. In the American Quarter or Garden District of the city were the winter homes of the New York banking families that had intermarried with the New Orleans banking families for several generations before the war. The 3% of slave owners who had large plantations were mortgaged up to the hilt to the “New York/New Orleans” bankers prior to the secession. With Madras cotton coming to market from India as well as cotton from Brazil reaching the international market at the time the price of cotton had plummeted to the point that the big plantations were going to default on their loans.

Seeing themselves as “to big too fail” these big plantation owners used secession as their tool to avoid bankruptcy. These “to big too fail types” being the local political elites of their day, led their “poorer” brethren into a disastrous war they could not win. Once Admiral Farragut had secured New Orleans the banks shifted the gold reserve back to the Union the next day and commerce began again. With no money, no industrial base and no navy it was only a matter of time.

Your Humble Servant,
Walt

Grey Ghost

You know Ive read all these comments and you can tell the ignorant yankees and scalawags from intelligent people that reall researched their history. It seems the yankees believe that all of us white southerners are to blame for slavery and anything else they can think of. Well try this on for size, especially you reparation people. William Ellison: third-largest slaveholder in South Carolina, “owning” more than 60 slaves by 1860 (putting him in the top 5% of slaveholders in SC—and owning more slaves than 99% of the South’s slaveholders), and staunch supporter of the Confederate cause: one of the richest men in South Carolina, his family lost it all after the war between the States because they put their dough in Confederate bonds. His oldest grandson served in the 1st South Carolina Artillery and was wounded in action on July 12, 1863. Okay, so they were black too. I can’t and will never think like a person from Michigan, and I thank God each day for that. We are americans not Americans. We had and have the right to sessession. You may like socialism and big government, but I don’t, and it appears other writers from the South are of the same thought.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Walt: Thanks for a great comment–and telling me something I didn’t know! Knowledge is a priceless gift, and that makes perfect sense of the surrender of Naw-leans.

Two requests: please don’t call me “Miz,” and please write again. I can’t remember seeing you over on at http://www.thetexasring.com. Tony has a great new fable up. I hope to hear more from you, and my e-mail address isn’t very hard to find. You can even ask Gary for it, and he has been “instructed” (since he is not my servant) to hand the thing out generously. I will say again that you get to be a member of the tiny Ring by catching my attention, writing, and responding. Some lose interest, but others become dear friends. I am an Ayn Rand “spotter of talent” (something I enjoy enormously) and I admit cheerfully to a partiality for Navy men!
Uh…”REPUBLIC” of Texas, if you please!

Cordially, Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Grey Ghost:

Well said, Sir. Let us not leave out the carpetbaggers, which still flourish, sometimes in reverse, as when Hillary Clinton went off to get elected from what the Brits call a “pocket burough,” New York. New York is a prime example of what we call “yellow dog Democrats,” voting for a yellow dog before they will a candidate of other political convictions. Robert Byrd is another scalawag of note, and the northern Bush family struck gold in southern states–or a state and an occupied republic, to be precise!

The spam filter will grab this if I write too much, so thank you very much for sharing the tale of William Elliot, his 60 slaves (a monumental capital outlay) and how high in the hierarchy that put him. PERHAPS a sixth of those were house servants, the aristocracy. The rest were employed working the fields that supported them totally. Again, I am not in favor of slavery, for the most pragmatic of reasons: it is the least efficient, most expensive form of labor. Wage slavery and life on the welfare plantation are far worse ways to live. Write again, please, Grey. Cordially, Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Mr. Moses: If your claim that the citizens of the former Confederate States are “the fattest, poorest, sickest, most polluted and most dependent on government handouts of any in the Union” (perfectly dreadful sentences structure, by the way), can be confirmed, you just acceded to my point about “Reparations.” I’m sure the citizens of your major cities are all slim, affluent, healthy, and employed. Detroit, Chicago, Lost Angeles, New York City, and Seattle are glittering prizes of your brand of thought in action…perhaps Detroit will get Wal-Mart back some day.

If you can persuade Mr. Obama, Harry, and Nancy to go along with you–No, why don’t we put it to a vote? Hawaii wants the throne of Lilliuokalini back…Texas is an occupied country which would be far better off in the opinion of at least two or three of us if we stopped suffering the fate of subjugated people, and half a dozen States got annoyed enough this year to rattle the 10th Amendment. I think it would be perfectly lovely if y’all left us to go our fat, sloppy, illiterate cracker ways. Oh, dear…the Northern government is the one that has controlled education for 160 years, isn’t it? Y’all could claim that a contract in which both sides do not benefit is void. You do not think we add anything to your lives, and we can’t afford your “free” lunches. We would have been happy to walk away in 1860 but the North opted for “the persuasion of power.” Jest might be that most of us would still prefer to go our ways in peace. A vote would be fun. “All you who want to be part of ‘these United States’ rush to the big cities and the coasts, and the ones who are tired of taxation and regulation without honest representation stand anywhere you please.” Oh…we already have that result, don’t we? LBT

Dave

At issue is whether the people of succesionist states would fight. I will join the first state that makes the move and I will fight. Can we win? Not with direct confrontation. But we don’t need to win, just outlast the whiney liberal media.

Walt Bombka

Ma’am,

I’m honored and humbled to have gained your attention. Rest assured that the “Ms.” meant no offense and was intended as an honorific with affection from an officer and a gentleman. I have a grandmother from Missouri who was quick to remind me after my first commissioning, that while I was born in Illinois and the Congress of the United States might have seen fit to make me an officer, that she had raised me to be a Southern Gentleman. I was further advised that: “You can forget about the Southern, but don’t you ever forget about being a gentleman!”

Yes I stand corrected: when Jacqueline and I finished crossing the thousand mile stretch of I10 in the “Republic of Texas” I turned to her and said, “It really is like a whole other country!”

I will contact Gary referencing your post here and request that he facilitate our continued dialogue. The search engines have been fickle and the days grow short.

V/R,
Walt

PrickLeePair

Linda Brady for president !
Thanks Linda for telling the truth, in a time when most people in this country are to afraid to for fear of having fingers pointed at them.
Our government has gone to the dogs and just seems to only get worse and worse and with each passing day, it becomes more clear that what we are seeing is nothing more than an intentional collapse of our economy, orchestrated by a band if thieves that once was our government.
Your right, nothing has changed, the only hope I have is that the government continues on its present course of pushing us too far too fast, then and only then will the American people rise up and act like Men and Women and put these thieves in their place !
These thieves that hold us hostage in our own homes while they live like pigs on our dollar.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Love it, Dave. Is the government up to an even more outrageous version of Waco and Ruby Ridge? I rather think they would be, because they think we’re domestic terrorists anyway. North Carolina and Montana have very strong secessionist movements. Please write again. Linda

It’s also worth noting that these are the states that receive the greatest return on their federal tax dollars, averaging $1.25 from Washington for every $1 paid in. And therein lies the real reason that these silly calls for secession will forever go unanswered. Absent U.S. government handouts life in the American south,Texas included, would rapidly come to resemble life in Bolivia.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Jay: How do YOU account for the statistics you cite, and how did we all get ahead of at least Washington D.C.? Is such moral turpitude genetic? A result of the climate? Caused by incessant handouts? Inbreeding and/or different accents? Do Southerners who immigrate to the blessed North become slimmer, better educated, longer-lived, moral, and free from substance abuse? Do damnyankees (just teasing)…Do those who immigrate to the South become Jukes and Kalliks quickly? Why do they go?

If, indeed, those states receive $1.25 in federal money for every dollar their taxpayers forfeit, that may be your answer: increased government intrusion provides more incentives for those who will not support themselves to be there, thereby increasing immigration of those least qualified to succeed.

Tell me more about Bolivia, please! It sounds like a delightful place supposing it is not full of communistic guerillas. Write again, please–and this time you wrote an excellent letter, befitting the superior education of your home state. Chuckle…don’t be snide, Linda. Intelligent, well-educated people live all sorts of places, including Texas.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Jay:

I looked at your list again and had to laugh. I’m obese and I smoke but I didn’t get that way from living in Texas. Not guilty on the rest of it. I posit being above the norm results from being the descendant and progenitor of taxpayers!

Bolivia, huh? So long as I can take my cattle, goats, and guns and the local rurales can be bought and will stay bought it might be very nice. Why did the Bushes buy several thousand hectares in Argentina? Poor research?

Cordially, Linda

Happy Gulliver

Dear Linda,
Will the Federales attempt a bigger Waco? THAT is a BIG question. It all depends on timing, message and leadership. When Detroit, Chicago, LA, and New York are bringing in Canadian forces to maintain martial law because the WIC card no longer buys food that would be good timing. But regardless the timing it all comes down to DC’s taste for blood vs. their taste for bad press.

I plan on leaving the late great state of Lincoln within the next 5 years, just trying to figure out where to. Texas, Honduras, Italy, and Chile are on my current short list. If you guys could just make some announcements like “We refuse to pay for California’s Debt!” “We don’t need no stinking bailout….Texas is going to opt out” The choice would then be easily made and I will call you neighbor.
Happy Trails

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Happy Gulliver:

Oh, I do NOT like your analysis! If there is one thing we know the Left does not worry about it is bad press. Another is voter reaction. Hassan is innocent until proven a victim, but it is far too easy to stage a raid with at most an off-hand “oops.” later. We don’t seem to have any leaders to talk about, but I don’t think that the traditions of western civilization would prevent some people from administering a couple of object lessons if they thought violence would be useful. The Speaker of the House thinks threats of martial law are a fine political tool. I hadn’t thought of Chile, Honduras looks pretty good, I adore Italy…but remember Mussolini; a people that cave once could easily do so again. There is MUCH to recommend Texas, so buy the latest almanac. For twenty-five bucks you can learn about our seven geographic districts and 254 counties. The Blues hold the big cities and the Rio Grande border, but any place else with adequate rainfall could be delightful. What do you want to do once you get here? Gary will give you my e-mail address if you ask for it, and I enjoy talking about what we’re doing and why. Thanks for writing, Linda

jay moses

Linda-
I suspect the Bushes bought thousands of hectares in South America for the same reason that my wife and I bought 23 acres in Wisconsin: Both of us expect some really bad things to happen in the near future. Never mind secession. Think about the collapse of the American economy under the weight of unpayable debt and peak oil.

What do you think about Nigerian Dwarf goats as dairy animals?
jay

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Jay, you’re full of surprises! I think Nigerian Dwarves are adorable and keep meaning to get some. Apparently they’re good little milkers, just as our Irish Black Dexter small cattle are. We’re sold on Nubians and French Alpines, so long as they were either bottle-raised or have been milked before. They are gregarious, affectionate, curious, and excellent milkers. We’ve found that when you live on the place and bond with them (baby carrots are a good start) they don’t wander. Ours go browse and then come back up to the house. This is an excellent thing because it is very difficult to make a goat-proof fence! The Nigerians get along fine with other breeds. Don’t fail to worry about EMP, the breakdown of the food distribution network, and similar fun times. The questions with Bush was “Why Argentina?” Thanks for writing. Linda

Happy Gulliver

Linda, I don’t like my analysis either. I would like to stick my head in the sand and wish it away. I don’t like Igor Panarin’s analysis much better, if he is off on the timing…and things flow peaceably…. I’m not altogether against it. Me-thinks there are a lot of “Texans at Heart” who clapped loud and hard when your governor talked about succession. Many of whom even went shopping for boots and a 10 gallon hat.
As for leaders, they always show up in history when needed, never before. Good leaders never want to lead, but their character demands them to pick up the mantel. My only hope is a leader emerges who understands what Sun Tzu said;
“The skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact he disputes the mastery of the emp”
When the mantel is ready someone will lead.
Till that day, circle the wagons keep your powder dry and store up more food than a Crazed Morman.
Happy Trails

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Happy Gulliver, you fantastic nut, thanks for this and the private e-mail! Write again, because I’ve got a couple of regulars I think you would really enjoy knowing, and vice versa.
My darling Charles paid me a compliment the other day that left me stunned and more gratified than I have been frequently in my life. We were talking about an “if” that involved locusts swarming out of the city over the wagons, and I said that I had always feared I would freeze, never mind that I’ve been a good shot for over 60 years and done all my thinking ahead of time. I told him of the closest I ever came to being in combat, when a little twit of a bank clerk freaked out because our foreman, there to guard me when I went to get what I consider a great deal of cash out of the bank, “looked dangerous.” He’s a fit former elite unit fighting man, now 50, and he WOULD be “dangerous” if anything threatened me. I was talking to the bank manager in his office about W&G type stuff while Asia waited for the money to be counted and bundled. I heard someone gasp, “They’re arresting that man,” looked up, and went racing out of the office without my purse. You ladies now how serious THAT is! What stopped me temporarily was a cop with one hand on gun and the other shrieking “STOP! STOP! Don’t go near them.” to be continued

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

If I write too much at one time the spam filter snags at it. To continue… The HELL I’ll back off. That is MY Asia, he has done no wrong, and you people can jolly well take the handcuffs off and we will talk this over like rational people…or you can shoot me, or you can arrest me, at which point I will continue demanding Asia’s release until after I have had my one telephone call and instructed my attorney to bail Asia out FIRST! I didn’t have to think, I didn’t consider the danger of charging seven armed men and a cop-ette, ALL that counted was defending my dear friend and indispensible Segundo. I almost never say “cops,” but the cops geeked, although not without one asking loudly enough for everyone in the bank to hear if Asia were sleeping with me. Oh, yeah, gorgeous black men twenty years my junior just won’t leave me alone, falling for me in droves. to be concluded

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Next a “fatherly” older officer demanded officiously that I identify myself (while they were uncuffing Asia!), wanted to know if Asia were my lover, and claimed the bank clerk had been afraid that Asia was FORCING me to withdraw money. Sounds like a plan: grab some female, force her to cash a check, and let her saunter away and sit behind bullet-proof glass with a telephone handy while you wait for the swag. BOA refused to apologize, the Cops insisted they had to fill out a form authorizing Asia’s arrest if he ever set foot in the bank again, and I smiled sweetly and took about $400,000 away from Bank of America. (Spent it all on cows, tractors, and stuff.)

CHARLES said that I have “command presence,” which is absolutely…from another fighting man (Asia, not me) that is as high a compliment as there is. In a sense I can see how that sort of behavior leads to citations that start, “With reckless disregard for her own life…” but maybe this is an ordinary reaction, too. I didn’t see that I had done anything exceptional, and I sure wasn’t thinking about it…it was clear what had to be done and I did it. Immediately. Which is probably the whole point. I always thought “command presence” was that quality which inspires “we’ll follow the old man wherever he wants to go,” (White Christmas) but that is only part of it, I learned. This echos what you just said, that leaders emerge in time of need. I still don’t know if I could inspire a brigade to charge Hell with buckets of water. I just know that nobody threatens MY children, MY men, MY animals or the helpless where I can see it without facing my immediate wrath. Laughter…if anyone had asked me why I did it I would have said, bewildered, “Because that’s what mothers DO.” .

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Part IV: Cleaning up messes…I’m a a sweet, fat, little old lady, Shooters, and I can’t read this tiny type well at night. I wrote “now” when I meant “know” in the first section, and I did not make clear that the female officer with one hand poised threateningly to draw her gun had the other in my face in the classic “STOP” sign. I’m not even sure how I skidded to a stop on that slick marble floor; or if she just kept backing up. I did not do it of my own volition but I don’t remember her daring to lay hands on me, so that’s probably it, that she slowed me by going backwards until I could see they were releasing Asia…I was focused entirely on the outrage of arresting my Asia for standing quietly in front of the teller–they had him almost out the door, 25 or 30 yards away. I guess it is like those who can lift the rear end of a car from adrenalin rush when that must be done. I don’t want to be a hero; heroes are people who do the right thing when they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time! Smile…from very long experience, the real heroes are ones who tell funny stories about how they did something dumb or looked foolish; the braggarts start, “There I was, at 30,000 feet…” or “I was ambushed in the jungle and I…” My John was put in for several awards for valor, but he always claimed that he held the Viet Nam record for digging the fastest, deepest fox holes with his buttons when he hit the ground. He wouldn’t have dreamed of telling me about his derring-do. Anyway, we do not know what is in us until the chips go down, but if Charles says I can save Ft. Zinderneuf and defend the Khyber Pass if necessary–I believe him. Adoring smile…the COB is ALWAYS right! The only other “brave” thing I did was rescuing our beloved hound in the face of a much larger, younger, and more violent person who was abusing Babe. Once again, I didn’t think. I marched over, untied the dog, wheeled on the monster maltreating her, and gritted out slowly, “This is MY dog, now. Are. There. Any. Questions.” No, only whining excuses. Gee, if doing what is right because it is right makes us heroes, we can all do it, can’t we? MY idea of “bravery” is going to the dentist! They scare me incoherent. Rescuing lovable Newfoundlands and men who work for me is something to be done when it needs doing, instantly, and without fear of the consequences. How bizarre…ME? A hero? Nah, just a mother, but if I can do it anyone can. LBT

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Walt, my treasure, thank you for another truly great post! Crew, Walt and I are corresponding, discussing Jewish dietary laws, EMP, and other neat stuff. Wish I knew/had known your grandmother. That’s what MY family always said, that we didn’t need an act of Congress to make our menfolk gentlemen. You know, I think they don’t do that any more? As recently as WWII an officer in the US military was offered hospitality in the South simply because he was an officer. Some will see that as snobbishness, I suppose, but we all have recognition signs and ways of doing a quick sort on whether or not someone is likely to be acceptable in our group. Hearty guffaw…perhaps being able to say “teabagger” with a straight face is the password in some circles.Okay, everyone…Extend your left hand. Now curl under your middle two fingers and oppose your thumb to them. In Texas, when you hold your hand up, that signifies “Hook ‘em Horns!’ In all positions (I will add scrupulously, “So far as I can tell.”), that is the recognition signal for the Illuminati, Bildebergers, that sort of thing. If you look at old news clips you will see Dubya and his father doing it frequently. LBT

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear PrickLeePair: Thank you for the enormous compliment of “:Linda Brady for president !” but I’m holding out to be the Princess of Partially Parallel and Only Slightly Skewed Universes. “You’re wrong, he’s right.” “Do it this way.” “Take that troublemaker out and shoot him!” A mere President can’t do that–delighted laughter–but I am vastly flattered, thank you, Sir.

“Thanks Linda for telling the truth, in a time when most people in this country are to afraid to for fear of having fingers pointed at them.” Rueful chuckle. We have two choices, these days: you can try to stay below their radar, or you can be Irish (or several other qualifying factors), and decide with icy pragmatism that being as high profile as you can will work better. I write for W&G for sheer joy–and because writing is how I get my analysis out of my mind and into coherent, ordered thoughts, anyway–and because I see it as a type of insurance. I do not get paid, if any of you wondered, other than getting to read a couple of other newsletters, which is very kind of Agora. Six months or so talking to you wonderful Shooters has lead to over 20,000 mentions on line! Isn’t that bizarre? However, if I die suddenly from a “heart attack” (I’m in incredible condition for my age) or get killed by “home intruders,” more than my immediate family and friends will ask questions. You weren’t being ignored; things go up, here, erratically. There are 2 more sections of my last comment before this which did not post immediately. Thank you again for a response that deserves an entire article and would get it if I were allowed the space. Cordially, Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Shooters…PrickLeePair inspired me to ask: want to agitate and see if it gets us anywhere? Gary wanted for me to have a daily column, but his request was denied about six months ago. We were going to call it “La Vida Whiskey,” and talk about the joys of Jeffersonian agrarian small r-republicanism whether one is fortunate enough to be a land-owner or not–and anything else which came into my odd mind. If a bunch of you write and ask for more and better LBT you just may get it. Chuckle…sorry, Gary, for springing this on you here, but these guys are pure-D inspirational. Who knows, perhaps now we can get regular room to talk about all the things which concern or enchant us. Happy Gulliver and I spent time together discussing old ways to entertain and teach kids, and beautiful Christmas decorations even small children can make without presenting Mama with a marshmallow bristling with glittered toothpicks–and working on a reading list for children and adults. Naw, “The Hungry Caterpillar” didn’t make it. What do YOU think should go on it? Other than the obvious, such as the Bible, Atlas Shrugged, von Mises, Jose Ortega y Gasset’s Super Man, Eric Hoffer’s True Believer, Why Johnny Can’t Read, Louis L’AMour (c’mon, ask me why!), Agatha Christie (ditto), ALL of ERB, especially the Mars series, and the Survival Manual for the Green Berets? Everyone can play, so please do. LBT.

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Lora Jane: They dropped “Top 10 Things To Worry About” in strict order of precedence before your great comment posted. I do NOT know if it is possible to bring that up under “recent posts” and continue to comment. Please write and tell us about your version of life on the homestead you love. You have an excellent point: it isn’t enough just to disapprove, we need to show others why freedom, self-sufficiency, and the principled life is something to aspire to. Yeah, the life of those who accept–or worse, promulgate– Statist ideologies is far from the ideal, but if WE, who live our ethics, do not show them what they are missing, how will they learn the sheer joy of a fire in your own fireplace burning wood from your own trees (trill of laughter, cut by your own hired hand!) or how marvelously rich butter you made yourself from the cream your very own cow gave is, or the sensation of eating eggs your chickens laid, sausage you made yourself, and potatoes you grew is unlike anything they have ever known? OUR (all of us, not just Charles’ and mine) homegrown produce is vastly more satisfying than what Michelle Obamma gets by snarling traffic to visit the local chi-chi market to buy arugula and six times what most of us spend for a pound of meat. OUR beef and deer, produced in true freedom in a country that recognizes the sanctity of private property and wages, will be far beyond the ludicrous $400/pound beef served at the White House several times a week. That’s not sour grapes, friends, that’s straight from the rancher’s mouth. OUR good grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, pork, and eggs, and dairy products are delicious beyond anything most Americans have ever tasted. Part of that is quality–but a big part of it is the sweet taste of self-sufficiency.

daryl

It’s obvious that those disagreeing here with Linda come from the Howard Zinn side of the argument on causes of the War of Northern Aggression.
Zinn’s students,(David Williams comes to mind) ,who are now coming into their own on the rewriting of all of the facts of that period of our history are so brainwashed by these Marxist non-fact ramblings that the truth of the matter could be forgotten in another generation or so.
Thanks Linda for a fair and reasonable account of the way it was.

Michael Peirce

Ma’am

Well said – there are still money who worship the central govt – almost out of habit. Who support their goofy wars and many agencies and don’t seem to mind being bossed around by feckless, incompetant scum. Its good to at least put the truth in front of them – after that, its up to them.
As a child my friend and I (growing up in MD) played many a wargame – for some reason I was always the Rebs and he the Yanks. As we grew older we put arguments around our positions but ultimately we just were who we are. If only we could get out of this sorry mess without fighting…

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Dear Michael:

Thank you for a touching and philosophical reply, and you’ll understand why I enjoyed your Freudian slip: I’m pretty sure you meant to say “There are still MANY who worship the central government,” but what you wrote is painfully true of our nation. Some of you Shooters have a genius for putting in three lines what it took me a very long article to cover–one I never sent Gary, thinking it might be considered “too controversial” or “not really discussing economics.” Clan, Tribe, Sept, Family…we are still fighting the war between the Saxons and the Normans, the Lord High Protector and his Roundheads vs. the Cavaliers, and the Jeffersonian Agrarian Republic (not at all the Republican Party of today) against the industrialized, politicized North. The issues are precisely the same on this Thanksgiving Day: large government vs. small, and high taxes and tariffs. Come to think about it…wasn’t that what the Revolutionary War was about?! Regards, Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Thank YOU, Daryl. I was happily unaware of Zinn and David Williams. I’ll bet if we ask Michael he’ll tell us tales he heard in his youth. Smile…Quite frequently I point out that old ways work very well, particularly when modern technology breaks down. We don’t need a giant factory called Land O’ Lakes to make our own butter if we have access to real milk with cream in it: we can shake the cream in a jar. We hand the truth down just as preliterate societies did and just as many Russians preserved Christianity for over sixty years, through oral tradition. Nobody ever came out and said to me, “Yankees are dreadful, treacherous, amoral, abusive warmongers, Child, so don’t you go believin’ them.” They told me of one of my more colorful ancestors who was captured by enemy cavalry while reloading his ancient muzzle-loader and attempting (unsuccessfully, obviously) to fend off several mounted men with his saber. It’s a rousing tale, and culminates with the reprobate escaping from the d**nyankee prison by clobbering a priest and disguising himself in the cassock. They taught me what we DO and how we ACT, through example, bless them. Individually we see many, many examples of fine, honorable folk living above the Mason-Dixon line, and we like and admire them even though they talk funny. The battle is over philosophies of life, not about race, creed, or previous conditions of servitude. The opposition does spread disinformation and has for over 155 years. There is copious literature regarding how most slaves felt about their families, which is a far more apt term than “masters.” The accounts are full of love, loyalty, gratitude, admiration, and no desire to be ripped from their homes for an abstract called “freedom” that meant losing their homes, their jobs, security, and affection. These accounts were written down from testimonies AFTER 1865. Yes, there WERE a very few who behaved incorrectly; there are some of those in every society. Again, I do not wish to see a return of slavery, and I hope for the end of life on the Welfare Plantation (which has destroyed the characters and values of those who live there) and even wage slavery. Until Americans are able to insist upon the sanctity of private property and what we earn once again, those who labor in offices and factories ARE enslaved. There is no other acceptable choice if they wish to eat. Onerous taxation prevents citizens from accumulating sufficient capital to start their own businesses or to come join us in the leisured, fulfilling agrarian life. How many times in my life I have heard, “We didn’t have a lot of cash money, but…” followed by stories of joy, laughter, and the pride of achievement. Happy Gulliver and I have been swapping emails recently on family entertainment “back then,” making beautiful Christmas decorations, playing Battle Ship on paper, gathering around the piano to sing when there was company…He had started a bibliography of “must reading” for the young, and I pitched in happily. “Poverty” is not synonyomous with “a cash income of less than $14,000 a year.” There are many sorts of poverty, and poverty of ideals and principles is far worse than living without a Blackberry and Lanvin tennis shoes, as I do. True wealth is in freedom, friendships, and ethics. Have I said recently that y’all are a blessing and an inspiration to me?! Thanks–and please keep it up. Linda

yourhuckleberry

Hey JMoses
If you will just kindly have your clan of Northern Progressives move back North where they belong, instead of their living her in God’s country, we will more than happy to secede, in hope that you might venture down to try to prevent it.

I dare say most of the transplants would not want to move back to your decaying North where only the criminals have the weapons.

And, Napolitano may be correct about the returning troops. They are being betrayed by your Obama and I am sure they are very aware of his policies along with Pelosi, Reed and the rest of the socialist in Washington.

jay moses

hey huck-
i live in the north, thank you very kindly and expect to stay here. You’ll get no fight from me if y’all secede again. Just think of all the farm subsidies, medicare payments, military facilities and other disproportionately southern oriented expenditures we could save.

Why not take a poll of your fellow unreconstructed rebels and see how many of them support secession? Better yet, why not run for governor of your state on a secessionist platform? Submit your plan to a vote of the people and see if you win. After you lose (and you WILL lose, i guarantee it) you can return to drinking Pearl beer (do they still sell Pearl?) and singing along with Warren Zevon’s “Renegade”.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
jm

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Now, Huck, darlin’,’ you KNOW we don’t want to fight another war on our soil! We didn’t enjoy the last one, still haven’t recovered from it, and would lose even worse to an even more heavily-industrialized and populated North with a larger, more statist government with the only armed forces and far superior weapons. You were just bein’ so typically outraged Southerner whose homeland has been insulted that you were stuttering when you typed. All we ever wanted was a simple “no fault” divorce. Odd thought…can we leave when the kids are grown? Few know that the founding fathers had grave doubts that two such dissimilar groups could form a successful nation. The differences in climate, lifestyle, world views, and ideals…we should have had enough sense not to go on that first date. Big hug, Linda

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

jm wrote: “hey huck-
i live in the north, thank you very kindly and expect to stay here. WE APPRECIATE IT. You’ll get no fight from me if y’all secede again. I’M NOT SURPRISED, GIVEN YOUR LAST PARAGRAPH. Just think of all the farm subsidies, medicare payments, military facilities and other disproportionately southern oriented expenditures we could save DO THE RESEARCH AND FIND OUT HOW EXPENSIVE “SERVICES” WE DON’T WANT ARE. MANY THINK THEIR STATES GET BACK MORE THAN THEY PAY IN TAXES, BUT IT ISN’T SO–AND THAT IS STILL THE CITIZENS’ MONEY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT. FILTERING MONEY THROUGH BUREAUCRATS IS VERY INEFFICIENT, AND MANY OF US DISAPPROVE OF YOUR AIMS.

Why not take a poll of your fellow unreconstructed rebels and see how many of them support secession? Better yet, why not run for governor of your state on a secessionist platform? Submit your plan to a vote of the people and see if you win. After you lose (and you WILL lose, i guarantee it SMILE…THE NORTH USED CONSCRIPT TROOPS AND MERCENARIES TO SAVE THE HIDES OF THE WEALTHY; OUR MEN FOUGHT FOR PRINCIPLES AND THEIR HOMELAND, WITHOUT PAY. YEAH, THE NORTH WOULD WIN AGAIN, HAVING ALL THE ARMIES, ALL THE COMMUNICATIONS, CONTROL OF POWER AND WATER, AND THE TREASURY. OKAY, SO YOU CAN BEAT UP SMALLER GROUPS WHEN YOU WANT TO, BIG, STRONG DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM. YOU CAN’T GET LOVE AND RESPECT THROUGH FORCE.) you can return to drinking Pearl beer (do they still sell Pearl?) and singing along with Warren Zevon’s “Renegade”.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. DO YOU REALLY? WE DID, THANK YOU, BUT WE DRANK GLEN FIDDITCH, A NICE LITTLE RIESLING, AND LOTS OF SWEET ICED TEA. ‘ROUND HERE THEY DRINK LONE STAR. MEBBE COORS. WHAT SNOBBERY, TO SUPPOSE THAT SOUTH’NERS ONLY DRINK BEER THINK I’LL WANDER OVER TO THE GRAND PIANO AND PLAY A ROUSING CHORUS OF “I WANT A HERO.” LOCAL WORDS OF ADVICE: IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE, DON’T SAY ANYTHING, AND IF YOU DON’T WANT IT–DON’T ASK FOR IT. YOU GO AROUND INSULTIN’ PEOPLE AND THEY JUST MIGHT INSULT YOU BACK. YOU EVER GOT SOMETHING SENSIBLE TUH SAY, DO WRITE AGAIN.
jm

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Update. I did, indeed, go play every South’n and Texas song I could think of and a bunch of Irish songs of rebellion. It felt real’ good. It isn’t easy to rile a South’n lady, but you go to insultin’ us an’ our ways an’ it can be done. If we had to come up with one, and only one, philosophical difference, that might be well be it: we just want to be left alone, but some people like to pick fights. As a Christmas gift to all, go find a copy of Florence King’s magnificent SOUTHERN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. We who live it find her words incredibly funny because her descriptions of different “types” are absolutely true and we think normal…and it totally baffles damnyankes, who think we’re crazy. At my age I could drop my purse in the mall (if I went to malls) and stand there looking helpless. The nearest Southern/Texas male would spring into action, pick up my belongings, and comment, happily, to all those around, “Ain’t she jes’ th’ dearest old thang?!” Ah…life in the 19th century can be so nice…

http://www.thetexasring.com Linda Brady Traynham

Gotta tell you a story. My husband’s grandmother, then in her eighties, drove into Tyler or Jefferson (can’t remember which, but those are the family places of the Traynhams and the Thompsons) one afternoon and ran into a friend’s son. By way of his pickup truck. She got out of her car, all flustered South’n womanhood, and burst into speech beloved by all of us: “Oh, Billy Joe Bob, Ah’m so sorry, ‘deed Ah am. Ah wouldn’t uh hurt you for th’ world. You all right? Oh, Ah’m such a silly thing, cain’t believe Ah did that…you sure you’re all right, now, honey?” With repeats, of course.

Billy Joe Bob sighed fondly and said, “Thass all raht, Miz Cora Dee. It’s all MAH fault. I knew you wuz in town and I should have gone home!”

Gospel, friends. Happened exactly as I told it!

mainpaige

Hi Linda,

First time writing to you. The North was broke before the civil war and the South did not want to engage in war and that was their last resort. There’s a letter in the National Archives from Jefferson Davis to Lincoln 1 month before the war. Davis said the South would free all the slaves in the South if the North would stop it’s pursuit of the campaign against the South. It was ignored because as you said the North was in deep financial trouble and the South had more resources in the land, crops and wealth. Lincoln borrowed against Nevada’s silver wealth to the tune of 500,000 oz.’s of silver to finance the war. Nevada became a state during the early 60’s. Nevada’s mines created the boom era of the 60’s & 70’s.

I hope our current leaders wake up to the facts. National debt, trade deficits, welfare, weak $$ and high oil imports, real estate and financial bubbles, bad legislation and the fact we gave all of our manufacturing to Mexico and Asia is sending us down the road to becoming a 2nd tier country. Government and unions need to stay out of our way and let us produce the natural resources we have here, as well as bring some of the manufacturing back. We are consumers and need to bring real production back into vogue. We are a bright people and we can do it. We’ve done it before.

Thank you for your columns

Mainpaige

radiofreedixie

as a faithful southron, i would prefer freedom of Dixie above life,treasure and toil. jay moses,
do you really think your little 23 wisconsin acres will shield you, from detroit, and chicago gangs?
all the cheese cutters in wisconsin can’t defend themselves.
as for slavery, where is it called morally wrong in the Bible? the crime was committed by the
new england slave dealers,under the union jack,stars and stripes and other european countries.
if your so concerned about ,why don’t you do something to help stop it now days? a yankee is
someone who condemns, what they are the father of. willing to steal,murder,rape and burn,
what does not belong to them.

Don a NH Patriot

Linda, as a northerner and true patriot I have been reading more on Lincoln and what the man truly was. You have hit the nail on the head. As much as I despise slavery, and that is what we all will become regardless of race if we don’t fight back now, the South was actually in the right.

The time is coming near America, wake up before it is to late. If you want to be a slave to the New World Order stay the sheeple that you are. If you want to take back your country speak up, email your congressmen and woman, VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBANTS (except Ron Paul and a few others that abide by the US Contitution) and as a last resort by guns and lots and lots of ammo. True Patriots will not let the country go without a fight and fight we will if we are backed into the corner.

j.d. moses

dear Linda-
you really must read more carefully. i wasn’t suggesting that the South would lose in a fight with the North. I was merely suggesting that if Huck ran for governor of a southern state on a secessionist platform he would lose the election badly since, as far as I know, there are very few people in the South who think that secession is a good idea.
As far as Pearl beer is concerned I’m amazed at your response. I like Pearl. Lone Star too. And “Renegade” is one of my favorite songs.
Be well.
jm

Stan

I find it isn’t worth the trouble to talk to those who are blind, deaf, and ignorant. Most of them think that the War of Northern Aggression was fought for civil rights. They believe that an imagined emancipation justifies the death of hundreds of thousands of people at the hands of a government that proclaimed them to be its own citizens. Why try to talk to those who have no idea what rule by consent means? Secession is expression of nonconsent of rule and should be understood by the children of those who chose to secede from England and create this country. It is however strange to behold a dysfunction which embraces freedoms but is void of desire for liberty.

Lastly, we aren’t going to secede again. We learned that lesson well. However, you ought not to criticize the South because we are doing nothing except going by the book and playing the game the way y’all want it played. We are not the ones who came up with the idea of Big centralized government which gives away money from cradle to grave. We were against it. Look at it this way: we are all one now, just like you wanted, for better or for worse. If we go down, you will be there with us.

Happy Gulliver

radiofreedixie, I’m coming to the defense of my cheese cutting neighbor. 23 acres in WI doesn’t sound bad… it just depends where they are located. (I won’t comment if your 23 acres is too close to Houston, Jackson, or Atlanta.) My German and Swedish Ancestors who came to this once great land came long after the war of northern aggression happened. Many of us Yanks by geography are plenty southern in our priorities just with a different accent. Forgive us for this… we have been subjected to a minimum of 12 years of misinformation by our public screwall system concerning the false Sainting of Lincoln and his warmongering on warmer geographies. Once you get outside the major cities up here people become a lot more real. Priorities become God, Family, Neighbor, then Country almost in that order. Honestly how different is that from down there. When things go badly, certain roads out of the cities will end up getting blocked if not by the Canadian rent-a-troops, or the National Guard then maybe some of our local Cold Weather Good-ole-boys. As I see it the Midwest will not lead a modern day succession movement, but if Dixie or TX makes a move we might not be far behind. East Coast they can have Chicago and Detroit, just let us keep our families land and leave us alone to cut our cheese and pack pickles.
Besides if I still reside in the Midwest when the dominoes of secessionist states fall, I would welcome the opportunity to have strong and positive trading relationships with our Dixie cousins to the south, and our gun toting crazy Canook’s to the north.

Happy Gulliver

Stan, I hope you don’t speak for all southerners about succession, here’s one yank who’s been shopping for a rebel flag. True, we don’t actually need a full on military succession, if we could just get state’s to reassert their 10th amendment rights and tell DC to stuff it. Maybe one of you Dixie states could assert that the one of the alphabet soups doesn’t have jurisdiction in your borders. Pick a new one to thumb your nose at every month:
BATF IRS FDA DHS DOE… etc.
Ask yourself this question when you go down the grocery aisle shopping for steak. “Which seal of approval do I want on my beef? FDA? Texan Approved? Locally Grown?” Right now in the “land of the free” we only get the FDA approval and the beef doesn’t always look so pretty.

jay moses

Gulliver-
thanks for the support. our 23 acres is located well away from anywhere and chosen for just that reason. In the coming years, it isn’t going to be about secession. That would be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There’s one road into this place and one road out–just the way it should be.
jm

Wilmer McLean

This entire post was made of fail. Your concept of history is severely damaged. I suugest picking up The Civil War by Bruce Catton, A Great Civil War by Russel F. Weigley, or Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. You really should read up on it. I’m not sure where you are getting your information (especially if the accepted history is, as you claim, Northern/Leftist propoganda) but you may want to reevaluate your source (or at least provide them when claiming things as fact). A few things:

1) Cotton was not king. In fact, the widespread planting of cotton in the south contributed to the Confederate loss in the subsequent war, as they did not have sufficient farmland to grow food for their armies. In the northwest, they grew wheat and corn, which were much more useful. And when Britain suffered poor harvests, they were much more willing to trade with the North, as the ability to feed their people was much more important than the ability to make trousers.
2) Lincoln may not have freed any slaves personally, but the Union Army sure did, under his direction. Slavery was not a distraction, as you claim. Firstly, the spread of slavery westward was probably the foremost reason for the conflict to begin with. Secondly, the Union war effort was largely uninvolved with the southern slaves until the Emancipation Proclamation, with the exception of some Union Generals like John C. Fremont who took matters into their own hands. And when the decision was finally made to free the slaves, what motivated Lincoln the most was the ability to cripple the South’s economy by undercutting their main industrial force. Also, I shouldn’t have to point this out, but slavery is really, really bad. I can’t help but question the moral foundtion of anyone who would support an institution born from the desire to oppress others, and then further try to defend that practice as, and I’m paraphrasing, not that bad. And no number of your statistics will convince me otherwise.
3) Also I’m a bit confused…you claim that the majority of the wealth was in the South, yet you claim that they were resisting a government who aimed to “impoverish” them?
4) Oh, and the War of Northern Aggression is a serious misnomer. The South shot first, on April 12th, 1861, on the federally owned Fort Sumter, despite the fact that the North had made no move to keep the South from establishing the Confederacy. Saying that the North was wrong to retaliate is akin to saying the United States should have just let the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor or the terrorists commit the 9/11 attrocities without retribution. And your Lincoln quote, about filling his coffers…again, the North had made no move whatsoever against the South. The Confederacy struck first.
5) And, as Woodrow Wilson (a native Southerner) has written, the North really did the South a favor by conquering it. The South was sorely lagging behind the rest of the world, caught up in an antiquated and (as you yourself admit) inefficient mode of industrial and social processes that, had the North “let it go,” would have set the Confederacy up for either complete economic failure, or worse, European domination. Don’t forget, Napoleon III had, by this time, established a puppet government in Mexico, and neither the Mexicans nor the French would have had any qualms with taking back the land lost in the Louisiana Purchase or the Mexican War. The Confederacy was a governmental system that could not survive. Each state printed its own money, militias were poorly organized and governors over-controlling, inflation was rampant and, again, they relied on the insitution of slavery for their industrial capabilities.

Regardless of the inaccuracies of your rant, there is one simple rebuke to your call for secession (which is itself the same sort of overblown sensationalist claim which you rail against). We live in a democratic nation. There is no need for secession, as Lincoln pointed out all those years ago. If you are being oppressed by a monarch or dictator, rebellion is warranted. If you don’t like what your government is doing in a republic, you vote the shmucks out of office. This isn’t exactly czarist Russia here, people. Vote, petition, engage in the democratic process. Change can take place without a full-blown uprising; we as a nation have proved that time and again. I’m assuming you are all adults here; think reasonably. Take the rebellion elsewhere, it is not needed here.

And really, please, cite your sources if you are going to claim things as fact. I’d imagine someone with your level of supposed education would know that by now. That way, when you deliver misinformation, people can follow through and see for themselves. If you’re interested, anything I have printed can be found in any of the books I mentioned earlier.

http://www.caltrade.com Robert

We just suffered through eight years of an incompetent Texas / Southern right-wing government,. They lost two wars and destroyed the economy, and spent the entire U.S. Treasury in the process. Now that that is over and we have a President trying to clean up their mess, all the born again fiscal conservatives and “secessionists” are coming out of the woodwork calling themselves “patriots” and ranting about “liberty”. Where were you when those right-wing jerks were trashing our lovely country?

Dave King

I always love it when people display their lack of knowledge on the cause of the Civil War. While the author of this pro Confederate /Lincoln hating piece pretends to “know the Southern truth” he is sadly misinformed. When talking history ,it is always best to go directly to the primary sources. In this case it is quite simple. Each of the original 7 seceding states published their reasons for and the of causes of secession. They are available in the “Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the Civil War” In this massive 128 volume collection (available on the web) you can find all of the original ,unedited reports,orders and correspondence , as they were written at the time. The beauty of this is you can see the thinking and mindset of 1860-1865 (before the liberal age of political correctness and double speak). In their “Declarations of Causes” the Southern spokesmen make it clear that the issue of Slavery was number one,two ,three etc. in their grievances. ….Please don’t believe me , a Civil War Re-enactor who wears the 7 th Tennessee Infantry Regiment’s grey uniform and carries it’s colors proudly ,read for yourself. My southern forbears were honest men and were not afraid to tell the truth. They saw Lincoln’s election as a sign that the new western territories would become non-slave ,or “Free-States” ,tilting the balance of power in the Congress in favor of the North . This would mark the beginning of the end for slavery .In the1860 census there were about 3,500,000 slaves in the South. At an average value of $1,000 each(skilled craftsmen were worth far more and infants and children far less) this was 3.5 Billion Dollars ,in 1860 !!!!. This value of property”would become worth zero to the owners and the banks which had added slave value in their calculations when figuring mortgages and loans etc……….this would spell economic chaos (which would also hurt many in the north just as badly). Without slavery there would have been no Civil War.

Kevin W

The Civil War was always about Slavery. Any attempt to claim otherwise complwetely ignors historical fact. Therefore the above article must be fiction. I did not even have to look to be sure that the author had no educational background in history. Slavery was the financial engine of the South.
Western expansion was the litmus test for the survival of slave labor. That was the cause of violence in Kansas – where the emerging state was allowed self-determine their status on the slavery issue. In Lincoln’s election campaign, he did not push for the abolition of slavery but he said he would stop it’s western expansion. His election signaled slavery’s eventual end to southern slave owners. That is why state secession began shortly after Lincoln’s election . Yes, it was about states’ rights – states’ rights to remain a Slave State.

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